UK watchdog denies it blocked Microsoft deal on orders of US regulator
The UK’s competition watchdog has denied acting on the orders of the Federal Trade Commission in the US, as it defended its decision last month to block Microsoft’s $69bn (£55bn) acquisition of the Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard.
Speaking to MPs on the business and trade select committee, Sarah Cardell, the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, said the body only acts on its own assessment of the validity of a merger.
“We are absolutely not doing the bidding of other agencies, we undertake our own analysis,” Cardell said. “We have independent panel groups who are responsible for those decisions, and take those responsibilities incredibly seriously.”
Cardell was responding to questions from the Conservative MP Bim Afolami, who pushed the chief executive to provide details of the CMA’s communications with the FTC in the run-up to the contentious decision to block the deal.
She said a legal agreement allowed the CMA to discuss specifics with the European Commission but that such a waiver was not in place for the FTC, preventing “detailed conversations” in the latter stages of the merger inquiry.
On Monday, the European Commission decided to allow the same merger. The FTC has sued in an attempt to block it, throwing the ultimate decision to the courts.
“Our standard in the UK is that we have to establish, on the balance of probabilities, that it’s more likely than not that the merger will result in a lessening of competition,” Cardell said.
“The standard in the US is a litigation standard, but the analysis is inherently the same; the evidential base will be inherently the same. That’s also true for the European Commission. Our assessment is then subject to judicial review by the competition appeal
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